Miraculous Ladybug: The New Holders

Volpina: Part Eight

Alya had just finished burying Eliza. She had transformed into Volpina and practiced her new powers of illusion to bury the previous Volpina.

Apparently the way her powers worked was that she could play a tune on her flute, which would create whatever she had in mind. While the illusions were just that, they could still do very real things. In this case, using an illusion shovel and levitating it to dig a grave for Eliza.

Alya had wrapped the girl's limp form in a hospital blanket. Once Eliza was buried, and the dirt covered her, Alya found a rock nearby. It was relatively long, with one side being flat. Alya picked up the rock, which surely would've weighed a significant amount, but she carried it like it weighed nothing. She placed it at the head of the burial spot, and pulled out the knife Ladybug had summoned before. The knife that killed Eliza. Alya used its sharp edge to carve words onto the makeshift gravestone.

When she was finished, the gravestone had one word carved into its front. "Volpina"

Alya would pay tribute to the grave later, as now she needed to make sure her death meant something. She put away the knife and pulled out her phone. Alya needed to find out where Dark Ladybug and Chat Blanc were fighting. She say another link to a live broadcast.

"Breaking News! Just when the city was recovering, the two anti-heroes, Dark Ladybug and Chat Blanc have appeared again, more ferocious than ever." A reporter was speaking on a helicopter flying over the Trocadèro. "And the new superheroine, Volpina, is nowhere to be found. Citizens are warned to stay away from the Trocadèro Gardens, at any cost. And to any citizens trapped there, you are advised to take cover and/or try to escape in any way you can."

Alya shut off the broadcast. "So they're at the Trocadèro? I should get moving if I want to stop them." She muttered to herself before flying off towards the monument overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

Meanwhile, at the Trocadèro, Dark Ladybug and Chat Blanc were fighting.

"Now that the Volpina girl is out of the way, I can kill you without distraction!" Chat Blanc smirked as a growl started building up in his throat.

"We'll see about that!" Dark Ladybug threw her yoyo ferociously at her former parter.

Chat Blanc charged towards Dark Ladybug, dodged the flying yoyo easily, and used his staff to raise himself in the air before retracting it and falling towards her, ready to slam his staff on her.

Suddenly, just as Chat Blanc was about to hit the ground, a steel wall appeared from out of nowhere and separated the anti-heroes.

Alya brought the flute away from her lips, feeling pound at what she had accomplished. Admittedly, she had no clue how to actually play a flute, but she had seen others play it, and she just improvised. Alya's plan was to create an illusion version of herself to act in place of her real self, just in case. It might've been cowardly to hide behind illusions, but seeing how dangerous the anti-heroes were, and the fact that she was still technically a rookie, Alya didn't want to take chances. Alya hid behind a chimney stack nearby so she could still keep an eye on the battle.

Illusion Volpina hovered above the anti/heroes. Alya closed her eyes and played the flute, imagining what her doppelgänger would do.

Illusion Volpina brought her flute to her lips and played a few notes, making the steel wall disappear. Dark Ladybug and Chat Blanc looked up in anger and shock.

"What?! I killed you! You should be dea-" Dark Ladybug hissed out the words before Chat Blanc interrupted her.

"She must've passed her miraculous to another..." Chat Blanc groaned in frustration. "How sickening. Looks like we have to kill her all over again."

"Should be easy." Dark Ladybug grinned. "She's a newbie, she'll be easy to destroy."

Illusion Volpina laughed proudly. "I'm experienced enough to deal with you two!"

Chat Blanc sneered. "We'll see, newbie."

Dark Ladybug got down on her knee and held out her hands in preparation to launch Chat Blanc into the air. Chat ran towards her, jumped onto her bridged hands, and Dark Ladybug threw him into the sky. Illusion Volpina flew out of his reach, played a quick tune on the flute, and summoned a metal cage to trap Chat Blanc in.

When he saw where he was he growled. "CATACLYSM!" He thrust his hand on the bars, freeing himself, but only for a moment. Illusion Volpina simply summoned another metal cage.

He let out a shout of anger, rattling the bars.

"You leave me no choice then, Volpina." Dark Ladybug smirked and chuckled to herself. "Lucky Charm!" Alya narrowed her eyes, and with the heightened senses that came with the powers, Alya saw what few down from the yoyo. A rubber band?

"Oh, COME ON!" Dark Ladybug screamed. "Give me something useful for once!!" She looked around wildly.

Dark Ladybug looked confused for a moment, but snapped the rubber band and launched it towards Illusion Volpina.

It hit her, and Illusion Volpina lost substance and disappeared in a cloud of orange smoke.

"Oh no." Alya inhaled sharply. They discovered her trick.

Dark Ladybug's eyes widened. Then her face parted in a snarl. "It was an illusion." She glanced at Chat Blanc's cage. "IT WAS ALL A CHEAP TRICK?!"

Realization dawned upon Chat Blanc's face. He swiped his claws through the bars, and they disappeared the same way Illusion Volpina did.

"She'll have needed to stayed near the battle, to monitor it..." Chat Blanc told Dark Ladybug. "We can still rip her to shreds."

Dark Ladybug scanned the area. Alya, realizing what was happening, quickly hid behind the chimney stack.

"Please let her not have seen me, please let her not-" Alya was whispering to herself, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Don't you know cats have a heightened sense of hearing, little fox?" Alya heard Chat Blanc shout. "I can hear you... Your prayers are all for naught, I can hear your frantic heartbeat, your panting breaths..."

"He's just bluffing..." Alya murmured to herself, more terrified than ever.

"Oh I assure you it's not a bluff, miss fox." Alya felt herself stiffen and freeze.

Suddenly, a voice spoke in her head. 'Don't give up, Alya. Use your miraculous's hidden power!' It was Renard!

'How do I do that?' Alya's thoughts replied to the Kwami.

'Spin your flute around you, and say, "Trompe L'oeil!". Trust me on this!'

"Okay..." Alya said aloud.

She spun around, holding her flute out. "Trompe L'oeil!" Suddenly, Alya saw herself disappearing, invisibility spreading from her toes to her head.

'Nifty. How long does this last before my five-minute countdown to detransformation?' Alya spoke in her head to Renard.

'It'll last five minutes before your five minutes countdown.'

"Wow." Alya blurt out, impressed.

Suddenly, Chat Blanc landed on the rooftop. Alya immediately covered her mouth before she could scream. His glowing yellow eyes scanned the roof, confused.

"Is she up there?" Dark Ladybug's voice called from the ground. "I wanna rip her to pieces."

"No." Chat Back replied. "She's here... But I think she's invisible."

"Oh, please. You're probably too incompetent to find her. Let me look!"

Dark Ladybug swung onto the roof. Alya suddenly remembered that she could fly. She immediately flew away, leaving the anti-heroes on the roof.

Then, in the midst of her escape, Alya remembered the Lucky Charm. She flew back and found the rubber band. There was a feeling inside Alya that told her to collect the Lucky Charms, that they would help her later on.

Alya snatched up the rubber band and looked around quickly, but the anti-heroes were nowhere to be found. Alya flew back to the hospital to prevent anyone from seeing her.